Matchday XX: Sampdoria v Milan

The beauty of having a mediocre first half of the season is you have a lot of opportunities to reverse results. In my playing and coaching days the idea of making good on losses and turning them into wins was a consistent philosophy. In order for Milan to achieve third place reversing results, turning losses into wins/draws and draws into win, is crucial. It all starts now.

The trick thing is Sampdoria is a bit of a tricky match. We beat Juventus a few weeks ago, they then beat us midweek, and Samp beat them with one less player on Sunday! By that logic we will have problems! The thing is Sampdoria is a youngish team by Serie A standards with an average of 26 but the starting eleven is a bit younger. The point of this is young teams always have a chance to dazzle, but can also lay an egg. A word of caution as Milan heads for a youth movement, with plenty of promise but requiring a ton of patience.

Allegri won't have to go totally youth dominant to reverse this result, but the defense may resemble the shaky version from last weekend, while the attack is led by our best and brightest the question that has plagued Max and Milan all season, is who to play and how to play them. We have discussed formations and personnel simply because it is a very real issue, and while some have enjoyed the 4-3-3, I still prefer the 4-3-1-2. So for me...

Abbiati; Abate, Mexes, Acerbi, DeSciglio; Monty, Muntari, Nocerino; Boateng, El Sharaawy, Bojo the Clown

In terms of defensive progress I still believe grooming DeSciglio at LB is better than minutes for Constant. Pairing Mexes and Acerbi again works if no one is tired and we can stomach the growing pains. I have placed Muntari in the lineup in the middle simply because Ambro would play three games in the span of seven days and that is a tall ask. I have also given the Bojo the start because he has earned from his last two matches, sadly the last time he earned a start he disappointed so like Milan time